Wow. It took me some time to learn this – sometimes it is surprising even for myself how long it can take to master a piece, even with focused practising – okay, maybe around Christmas, and middle of January, practice time was not really effective nor focused but at least I gained some pounds instead of speed

So after one and a half month of practising this daily at least for 15 mins (but usually 30-60, sometimes 60-120), I would say i am currently pretty comfortable with this at around 280 bpm any time, can cut it at 304 if warmed up and relaxed, but would probably throw my bass at Chick if this tune was an opening track played slightly above the usual tempo at an outdoor gig in late September not quite my tempo, would i probably say. But really, this is a disclaimer, Got a Match is useful and fun stuff, but it is crazy sh*t as well, so be patient with it and with yourself.

For me, learning this theme in its original recorded tempo was the most profitable experience in a long time. I had to watch my every step and become conscious of every move in order to go beyond my barriers. When I was looking for bass players doing this tune, I have seen bass players suffer from this tune live – sometimes even John himself who played on this track for Chick on the record… John himself is a Master – as a teacher, as an artist, musically, theoretically…on many levels. What I really like about him that he is always about music wherever and whenever he plays. His dedication and humility always amazes me – it is always refreshing to see and hear someone continuously grow even though he has been at the top of his game for several decades. John is the one who will always play what he feels and you’ll hear new experiences coming from his music and solos every time you listen to him. I am excited to hear John’s new album which he currently records but until that you fortunately have a lot of albums to listen to going from Fusion to Free Jazz. You’ll definitely know John’s Bach arrangement but his latest album Remembrance is definitely a must-listen, you’ll hear beautiful space and gravity played with a trio featuring Brian Blade and Joe Lovano.

So, back to Got a Match – it is extremely hard stuff. I have recently acquired a 6 string Yamaha and I cannot even imagine how difficult it can be not to make strings make noise while hitting every note of this. Anyway, I basically found two crazy guys on Youtube who nailed this perfectly – only watch these guys if you grabbed your seat: Rob Gourlay and Mike Pope.

Well. Hats off gentlemen. But how can you approach Got a Match?

Your survival kit for learning this one:

- organized, focused and regular practise routine – you’ll have to do this daily. Taking 30- 60 mins a day is more than enough. But during this time, focus entirely on the piece. If you do too much, you can become tired and usually that causes you playing bad, then you become frustrated that you haven’t progressed, Small focused steps.

- working out the runs and figuring out fingerings REAL slow, then practising difficult segments seperately – my method was to begin with half speed, play it for 2-4 mins, then increase tempo by 2-4 metronome clicks. Make sure that practise the segment correctly. At higher tempos, sometimes it is better to to increase the tempo only 2-3 times daily. In that way, you’ll feel the progress. You can make yourself weekly tempo goals. If it takes slower to progress, don’t hurt yourself. I have over-strained myself a bit at one time. Resting and recovering your injured hand will take more time. Believe me.

- play light, watch your hand positions and do as little movements with fingers as possible Besides being slow and conscious of your every move, you’ll have to lighten your touch on both hands. As you will see on the video, I play VERY lightly with my right hand – i am resting my thumb on the E string, but when i play with my index and middle, the E string barely moves – when you play hared, it will touch the pickup. You’ll have to avoid that. You can also record yourself, and check the sound waves – where it is louder, you become stiff, you play louder – you’ll have to even that out for yourself. You’ll have to experiment with right hand positions and angles, curving. If you play closer to the bridge and above the pickup, you won’t dig in between the strings too much but there will be more string tension as well. If you move way in the direction of the neck, the strings will move that way you cannot be precise in your motion. Usually you can find a sweet spot for yourself, but sometimes different sections will need slightly different positions as well. Here, I photographed some positions I have experimented with and worked. First one is basically Jacoesque – playing above the pickup and with your very tips of your fingers allows you to play fast and precisely and not dig in too much in between the pickups – yet for some people it strains the hands. Second is modernish-rampish-Willisish hand position – again, while i don’t have a ramp, the goal is to lightly play the strings with the tips of your fingers – this is a more relaxed position, however, it is not convenient for some, since plucking comes not from the root of your fingers, but from the lower joints. The third is a bit inward turned position, you won’t see that much often, nevertheless it is very useful – people whose middle finger is much longer than the pointing finger, will find that with this position they can play more easily and fluidly due to the fingers length aligned with the strings with the angle change. Experiment with these and combine them to find your best position!

- immense drive and persistence. If you become discouraged at any point, let it rest a bit – this stuff is definitely challenging. Relaxing and coming back to it later can be refreshing – when you begin with again, you’ll have a fresh perspective and you might notice things that have kept you from progressing. Also, it is useful to practice other stuff as well in order to relax yourself. Or as a different kind of motivation, you can watch a video of a pro bassist suffering from this tune

- patience – sometimes it is difficult to acknowledge that even though you are working hard, results are coming slowly. Don’t worry – due to the practice you have done, you have probably developed more speed and accuracy than before. You don’t have to hurry either since you don’t have a gig next week with Chick. (do you?)

So, all in all, have a safe journey fellow bass player and post videos of your Match

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song can be purchased at Amazon and iTunes!

So, after presenting Junior Braguinha I have decided to feature one more Latin American bassist who might not be known to you all – Nino Bezerra. The fun part is that they might be stars over there but i just don’t know about that, sorry for any of my bad ignorance…

I have discovered Nino when I was looking for pickup tests and there was a video showing Bartolini pickups and an amazing and unusual open E groove using natural harmonics and an arpeggio like fill…. Very tight, very musical and very creative. Again, I have to notice that the concept is very simple – triplet feel, open E, but still it is soooo tasty i have no words. I haven’t been 100% successful on imitating that triplet feel but here it is anyway, Have fun!

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original groove is available on Youtube!

I’ve noticed recently that every Latin American (rooted) bassist I stumble upon on YouTube is a mind blowing badass… I don’t know what’s different over there, but really, just look up a few guys: Victor Colmenero, NinoBezerra, Pipoquinha, Eduardo Barbosa and last but not least Junior Braginhua … all jaw-dropping. I’ve decided to feature them since they are more than worth it

Junior Braguinha is most probably known to you, he is a Ken Smith, MarkBass and a Rotosound endorser so his videos have probably reached you one way or another I just love how effortless and cool this guy does all those mind-melting licks. He is lighting fast but all he does is tasty. You can hear a lot of influences in his playing that are mixed together in this young chap. The three guys that are hear most in his playing are Linley Marthe, Jaco and Matthew Garrison.

The solo pattern I’ve transcribed is one of his signature licks – if you listen closely it comes out of his fingers in several in his solos – there is a song under tha codename (5) where you can hear it very clearly as an interlude fill – so I picked this excerpt and I looped it. The song is in 5/4 which can sound scary to some of you, but if you leave the coungting out and listen to the groove for a few rounds, it should be very straightforward – so that’s why i also transcribed the groove – you can hear that in the lesson as well.

The lick includes a good workout for your hammer-on/pull of skills (that’s the thing from Matthew Garrison) and it ascends on cromatic passing notes and stops on a slightly outside note, than it comes down with a recurring triad-base triplet pattern – simple, solid, effective with a little bit of speed Note that the first two bars are played actually an octave higher but i wanted to keep things Jazz Bass friendly for the majority out there Have fun!

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song is available on Youtube!

I was lucky enough to get a interview with one of my alltime favorite bassplayers Neil Jason ( Brecker Brothers, Dave Sanborn, Roxy Music, Cindy Lauper, Dire Straits…) who visited Denmark in august 2014 performing with the Brecker Brothers Reunion Band.
Neil tells us about his approach to playing and practicing, shares his music philosophy and also shows his bass and effects ( especially how he gets his signature chorus sound).

Anybody who does not know Vic? Okay… So you have also read my report on Vic’s Workshop and now you’ll see a full tutorial on Sex in a Pan, one of my favorites from him. Instead of making more short videos, now I decided to make one longer vid and break down the major parts of the whole song – so here it is! Enjoy it!

This song reflects the natural playfulness and the joyful wisdom of Vic himself while really making your ass move to it… it is THE flow To be honest, while the song is quite techincal in a way, I cannot really think (or talk) about it that way, it is more like a feeling : )When you first try to play it, it will feel like juggling – coordinating all the fingers together to make it flow and feel good takes some practice but the more you do it, the more you enjoy it, and the better you play.

Trust me, learning this piece is a real therapy experience The therapy includes little tapping, playing chords and double-stops, using dead, muted and accented notes, using that many fingers on your hands you never used before, intense left hand hammering, light slapping with double-thumbing.

The intro… besides the big stretch and the sliding right hand middle finger tap, there is one more thing to the intro part: the harmonics are hard to get when you release the right middle finger – your left hand has to fret two notes and just hover over some notes on the G string so lifting your right middle finger will produce the desired harmonic note… so it is kind of tricky, Vic magically brings them ringing everytime but well, if you can live without it just do so

The verse… the fun part. All of it is played sort of palm muted, for that, just place the side of your hand towards the bridge and play like that.When you play this groove, think of space and let the open strings breath and when your left hand has to hammer that 7th fret on the E string – be gentle and do not choke that open string too early. Otherwise – happy jugglin with all your fingers On the notation – P means the thumb, I means the index finger, M means the middle finger, T means right hand tap. On the left hand: 1 means left hand index, 4 means left hand pinky and when you can see those, usually you do not have to pick that note with your right hand!. Hope you can sort it out while watching it

The refrain… further finger coordination, and sliding double-stops. In the tab, you can see rest after the first slide, but note that there is a rhytmic right hand tap on the vide – I have seen Vic play that live sometimes.

The break in G… another fun part – I am still trying to figure out the descending pattern that Vic does recently but until then, here is how I think he played it on the record. Not as many right hand slap as you would think – that’s a good left hand finger-strengthener with the hammer-ons

So, if you reached that level, you are ready for the last part, the slap-style variation on the verse: if you watch Vic live, this part is played with a very light slapping-thumbing sort of playing – note that on the G and D string he uses double-thump style slapping while on the E and A string he only goes down with his thumb – it is barely slapping and it is a very natural motion – remember the economy of motion that all those pro players talk about!

So that’s it: if you have further questions, just shoot in the comments!

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song is available for purchase and listening at:

Laid back, tasty, nasty That’s what I can say about Meshell Ndegeocello and her music.

I am continously amazed by bass players whose voice and personality is so unique that you can recognize their music from basically one note… and Meshell is such a great person and artist. She is actually way more than a bassist – give a listen to any of her albums: she is THE soul, the feel – you can hear the depth, her whole path, every ounce of her pain, experience and love in every note she sings or plays. It is simply beautiful – somehow when I listen to her music, I always get the the feeling that Meshell amalgamates some sort of ancient feminine wisdom with the character and charisma of a masculine energies. (I guess adjectives could be exchanged in place of each other as well…)

But, she is also a hell of a bassplayer. It is always funny when I learn something new and realize that in a given piece of music, you not only learn some notes using some techniques – you always get a peek into a lifetime, into personal experience and thus, a little bit of the person herself as well.

So, this time, I can say that besides this SEEMS a simple laid back groove in G minor, it is way much more It is the last song from her album “Peace beyond Passion” called “Make Me Wanne Holler”. I have picked two fills I really liked, one is from 0:40 and the second can be heard around 5:40. The timing and the feel of the notes is sick, and the way it sounds is just amazing. I won’t come near imitating Meshell but she uses feather-light and smooth slides and / or hammer-on-pull-offs, experiment with it which way it works better for you. When i play it faster, i tend to use sliding, and then some notes are somewhat choked or a tiny-tiny bit delayed (as if you would hold your breath but in the slow version I mainly used quick hammer-on-pull-offs. I have to say it is more of a feel exercise, but rather a challenging one – and i still have to practise it till I reach her level of wisdom

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song is available for purchase and listening at:

Adam Neely here! After a long hiatus making video lessons, I’m here now bringing you a lesson/breakdown of a tune of mine, “Sequence Start.” There’s all sorts of nifty tricks and ideas in here including “Quintuplet Swing,” Perpetuum Mobile composition and chromatic side-slipping, so I hope you enjoy!

Marlowedk interviews Vashon Johnson, bass player for Miley Cyrus and a great guy too!, We caught him backstage before the Miley Cyrus concert, June 4, 20014 in Forum , Copenhagen, Denmark.
Vashon shows his rig, basses, bassynths and we also talk about practicing, his musical upbringing, how to be a succesful bassplayer in the business today and other “hot topics”

It was a improvised interview, so please bear with the video quality in the low light situations

This lesson is the last of three, if you missed it, here is the – first and second.

The refrain builds on simple harmony changes (D-C-G), but just watch (listen) what Wilbur does The first two bars seem plain simple ‘just’ a few dead notes but listen to the original and check out how that locks in with the drummer. In the second two bars, instead of using just the roots, the harmonies are once again spelled out – the beginning is a funky octave hit, and then basically a sort of a walking bass line outlining the chords follows, but of course spiced with a grooveish feel. Notice the usage of open strings which are even more important in the fitfth and sixth bar: basically a major chord is voiced (D-Fsharp) using the D open string and then a lighting fast triplet fill is played, the right hand just rakes the muted notes, and suddenly we should arrive at the other end of the fingerboard on a low G. That’s fretboard gymnastics for sure.

And if that is not sweaty enough, another musical style approaches us through the last part of this line : there are some very cool slides and a sixteenth note fill in the last two bars which remind me of Blues or Bluegrass guitarist or banjo players – a curious fact that Wilbur also played on an album entitled “Black Grass Music” – similar lines to be heard there as well.

Well, these are just another 8 bars from Hare Krishna, I hope with the other two lessons, you can pickup the ‘Wilburisms’ and transcribe the rest of the song – it is definitely fun to learn.

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song is available for purchase and listening at:

This lesson is the second part of this lesson. Third part should arrive in a day

In this instance, we go into the bridge (sort of) section – it begins with a pumping line of 4 bars with sixteenth notes, quite a task to get it done clean with all the dead and muted notes at the original fast tempo. After that, from one string the pumping line opens up and gives you a new challenge by having the same pulse on 3 strings instead of one using only simple fifths and octaves (F-C-F octave). For that part you can choose two fingerings – either to use your pinky to fret both the fifth and the octave, or to use your ring and pinky to fret the fifth and the octave – just experiment around with it and find out which is more comfortable for you.

Then comes the part which is most probably slapped on the record, still, I decided to use my fingers and powerful picking instead since I am (still) not that good at slappin’ and poppin’. Otherwise, I also noticed watching Marcus Miller that sometimes you cannot ‘hear’ a difference between light slapping and hard fingerstyle if the bass is active. I am also pretty sure Wilbur has an active circuit in his P-bass, so I cannot really decide how this part really was played – in the end, it’s your choice how you master this part

The video does not intend to violate any laws or copyrights, it is to be used for educational purposes (fair use). The original song is available for purchase and listening at:

Okay, so you probably know that i am quite a Wilbur fan, and you probably saw some Hair covers on my previous channel or saw my recent attempt on Hare Krishna here.

And now, here is the first lesson for it – there will be three lessons, I will pick three excerpts where he plays fun parts or some crazy fills for you!

This first excerpt goes into the very first verse where the bass comes in – there is no foreplay ladies and gents, Wilbur hits it immediately

By utilizing the open strings, and doing muted percussive notes the bass just grabs you from the first bar and then it pulls you with a slide up to higher registers where he pops in some open string notes as well (all chord notes!!) and another amazing flick before he goes back to low notes, and then, for the second time, we can hear a great variation on this heavenly line.

For the great relaxed slides, listen to the original recording as well, since the feel is pretty hard to get, erhmm, for me as well ;S The trick is to hold down both notes while sliding up (Eb and A) and when you arrive on the target fret, only the higher note should be voiced, the second, lower note is muted somewhere in between it is quite a challenge to arrive on the correct time on the correct fret, i hear myself a bit shaky with the metronome, but i hope you get the idea.

As for the fingering – experiment with your own, since i found a rather uneconomical fingering to be working for me – the second bar’s first few notes could be rather played with my left pinky, instead of my index, but somehow, it stuck with me that way.

Well, have fun with these slides and pop-corn machine notes, in the next lesson we will focus on ‘bridge” section.

Funky five string bass groove with fill (the fill can be played on 4 string as well)
The fill uses the open strings for doubling effect and is based the Em dorian minor scale (E F# G A B C# D)
Im playing my new Sandberg California MarloweDK Signature five string bass and im favoring the bridge pickup here.
Im playing through the direct out of a tc electronics RH450 amp into Logic Pro, the bass is strung with Dunlop Nickels 45-130

Another exercise playing through all keys using the cycle of fifths, this time we on A minor, and work through the rest of the keys 4 bars each chord.
Am
Dm
Gm
Cm
Fm
Bbm
Ebm
Abm
Dbm
Gbm
Bm
Em
Fastforward to the slow version if you get bored, since im playing through the changes a couple of choruses;-)

Backing track is generated with PG music’s Band in a box software
Download of TAB and backingtrack hidden for non subscribers, please subscribe to download files

Well, here is the second part of Jeff Berlin’s Bach – you can find the first one with a longer desrciption here! Stay tuned once again, two more parts are following!

When I recorded the Bona-lesson, I decided to take my bass to a pro and set it up – that happened now, and all I can say – it makes a huge difference. Jeff talked about lightening your touch on the bass, and wow. Years of stupidity on my side. A well setup bass is so much more fun and confidence to play – the guy who set it up for me just did an amazing fretjob, adjusted the neck, tightened the neckpocket and now my little bass has incredibly low action with a nice growl. Remember, we are talking about a Squier standard JB here! I encourage you to spend a little money on that if you are still a beginner.

Bear this in mind while learning this piece: let the amp do the work, and light your touch on both hands. The lighter you pluck, the faster you get. But begin slow to become even, record yourself and listen to yourself so you can spot the weak points Have fun!

You can go for the free Guitar Pro file here after a short, free and painless registration.

This lick is in Em and the fill is a descending Em pentatonic scale motif almost only using the two top strings.
Im playing my Sandberg California MarloweDK signature bass strung with Dunlop nickel strings , gauge 45-105 through a MXR envelope filter into a tc electronic RH450 amp